Protests zero-in on Obama’s deportation record

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, third from right, at a protest outside the White House July 26. (Associated Press photo)

U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., was arrested outside the White House last week with several others protesting the Obama administration’s record-setting deportation numbers.

They used a figure that didn’t come out of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but one that has been used widely by critics.

Since taking office in 2009, they say, the Obama White House has deported 1 million immigrants.

The figure probably isn’t far off.

In 2010 alone, ICE deported almost 400,000 people, 10 percent more than the Bush administration deported in 2008 and 25 percent more than in 2007.

“That tells you everything,” said Jaime Martinez, a San Antonio activist and founder of the Cesar Chavez March for Justice. “More people have been deported by this administration than any other.”

In an effort to push for comprehensive immigration reform legislation in a conservative Congress, the Obama administration has taken a hard line on immigration enforcement, workplace raids and deportations.

Immigration advocates have countered that such stances have led to family separations and Draconian immigration measures on the state level, while not arriving at immigration reform. They also criticize the president for not doing more by executive order.

Gutierrez has appealed to President Obama, for whom he fervently campaigned in 2008, to suspend deportations of undocumented college students with no criminal records. The president has declined.

The Illinois congressman with three other House Democrats also requested that President Obama clear the way for undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to remain in the country. He declined, again.

“It didn’t disappoint me as much as I was saddened,” Gutierrez said.

His protest, an old-fashioned sit-in, followed another by undocumented students, called DREAMers, at a National Council of La Raza gathering.

According to one story, “When the president said he could not unilaterally cancel student deportations, groups of students stood up from the audience and chanted, ‘Yes you can!’ ”

Another protest in Washington Sept. 15 will focus on the Obama administration’s record on deportations. Watch for that story in the San Antonio Express-News tomorrow.